Rollout of decent sanitation needs all hands on deck

The call by the United Nations (UN), for people around the world to work four times faster to meet the promise of the provision of safely managed sanitation, requires innovative, technologically advanced, and affordable solutions to the plight of people who do not have access to safe toilets.

For this year, the central message of World Toilet Day is that safely managed sanitation protects groundwater from human waste pollution.

Currently, the world is seriously off track to meet the promise of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6.2, which is to ensure safe toilets for all by 2030, stated the UN.

The Gauteng Provincial Government worked hard to eradicate the bucket system in the province, and this was achieved by the fifth administration of government.

This hard work has since been marred by the fast-paced land invasion around the province, which has led to thousands of people digging unsafe and unhealthy pit toilets.

Last week, as part of commemorating World Toilet Day, the UN stated that “with only eight years left, the world needs to work four times faster to this target”.

Earlier this year, MEC for Human Settlements and Infrastructure Development Lebogang Maile, working closely with the private sector, rolled out the LaliLoo toilet technology to some residents of Hammanskraal as part of a pilot project.

LaliLoo is one of the onsite toilet technologies that have transformed the installation of toilets in areas without sewer infrastructure.

Having worked with a number of companies that provide onsite toilet technologies that have been installed around the province, the partnership between the government and private sector will be critical in ensuring that Gauteng meets the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6.2.

As the Gauteng department of human settlements fast-tracks the formalization of informal settlements, affordable and reliable sanitation, and technologies that can be installed to improve the lives of people have to be availed at a competitive rate.

To achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6.2, communities have to also play a role by ensuring that the infrastructure that is available is used properly and not vandalised.

The 2022 campaign, ‘Making the invisible visible’, explores how inadequate sanitation systems spread human waste into rivers, lakes, and soil, polluting underground water resources. Vandalism of sewer pipes and insertion of foreign objects in toilets contributes to human waste spilling into the nearest surroundings.

The invasion of land near rivers and wetlands also contributes to the challenge.

The government, private sector, and communities must come together and ensure that people have access to decent sanitation and that infrastructure is protected by the users.